The Atlanta Falcons are making a head coaching change. The Falcons fired Arthur Smith following the team’s Week 18 loss to the division rival New Orleans Saints, the team announced in a statement soon after the clock turned from Sunday night into Monday morning.
“Decisions like this are never easy and they never feel good,” Falcons owner Arthur Blank said in the statement. “We have profound respect for Coach Smith and appreciate all the hard work and dedication he has put into the Falcons over the last three years. He has been part of building a good culture in our football team, but the results on the field have not met our expectations. After significant thought and reflection, we have determined the best way forward for our team is new leadership in the head coaching position.”
The Falcons’ statement further noted that the search for Smith’s replacement will be led by Blank and CEO Rich McKay, with input from Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot, among others.
The season-ending defeat to New Orleans capped Atlanta’s third consecutive 7-10 season under Smith, who was hired away from the Tennessee Titans prior to the 2021 campaign. His final game ended with Smith getting into a heated exchange with Saints coach Dennis Allen over a late-game touchdown that extended New Orleans’ margin of victory to 31 points.
Atlanta was 6-6 after 12 games this year, then proceeded to go 1-4 down the stretch with division losses to each of the Buccaneers, Panthers and Saints along the way. It was the third consecutive season that the Falcons reached .500 and then collapsed through the end of the year. In both 2021 and 2022, Atlanta started 4-4 and then closed the season 3-6.
The Falcons struggled badly on offense throughout 2023, finishing the season 17th in yards and 26th in points, as well as 25th in TruMedia’s version of success rate and 26th in EPA/play. Most of those figures marked a regression from 2022, when Atlanta finished 24th in yards, 17th in points, sixth in success rate, and 12th in EPA/play. Smith came under fire all year for his decision-making when it came to who would play quarterback, as well as his usage of recent high draft picks like Bijan Robinson and Kyle Pitts and caustic relationship with local media.
Atlanta will now search for a new head coach and presumably a new quarterback, as well as someone who can maximize said quarterback, along with Robinson, Pitts, and Drake London. The Falcons won’t be the only team in their division on the hunt for a head coach, as the Carolina Panthers parted ways with Frank Reich earlier in the season. The Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Chargers are also in the mix, and more teams could part ways with their coaches in the coming days.
